Woods in Winter – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Many of us might have indulged a little too much to feel like moving from the comfort of the sofa but a bracing walk in a winter wonderland has its upsides too – even with ‘chill airs and wintry winds’ there’s still goodness to be found…

The Sleigh-Bells – Susanna Moodie

It’s a little late for Santa’s sleigh now but this conjures up gorgeous images of dashing through the snow (if there is any) – surely it’s the only way to ride…

Snow – Archibald Lampman

The white stuff that falls from the sky divides opinion – some rejoice to see it, others pray it will go away swiftly. Whether or not it’s been a white Christmas, this poem provides a very pretty poetic picture.

Behold, as Goblins Dark of Mien – Robert Louis Stevenson

Pantomimes are part and parcel of a traditional British Christmas; this one is slightly dark in tone but fear not – its goblins are tempered with Fairy Queens…

The Sorcerer’s Song – W.S. Gilbert

What is the Christmas season if not filled with magic? And there’s tons of it here…

The Palace of Humbug – Lewis Carroll

If you’re rather tired of endless Christmas parties then you may be amused to read this poem. Humbug isn’t just the domain of Ebenezer Scrooge…

One Year Ago – jots what? – Emily Dickinson

Twelve months seems like a lot but really, it goes really quite rapidly indeed – as Emily Dickinson observes.

New Year’s Chimes – Francis Thompson

This poem is a veritable feast for the senses with all its superb sights and singing sounds. There’s no better way to close the year and see in the new one with a song – or indeed “with a million songs as song of one.”

A Song for New Year’s Eve – William Cullen Bryant

Keeping on the musical theme – a merry way to welcome the New Year. “The good old year is with the past; Oh be the new as kind!”

Song of Hope – Thomas Hardy

All of us go into a New Year with renewed hope for the future. This poem by Hardy sings out with hope for a tomorrow with a hope that is gleaming “dimmed by no gray”. Surely the best outlook to approach 2012.

We’re having a shared reading Christmas party while listening so please get involved -  tweet your thoughts by using the #eveningreadin hashtag and join our Tweet Party (Party Hashtag: #eveningreadin; Party Host: @thereaderorg)

Also, if you’ve missed any of the previous parts you can get everything Evening Read-In related right here : what better way to spend some time over the festive period than listening to the most classic Christmas story of all being read aloud?

Click here to listen to A Christmas Carol – Part 5 audio

Read along with the story here

Part 5 Synopsis:

Scrooge is overjoyed to find that everything in his room is as it once was and is especially happy and grateful to Marley and the Three Spirits for everything they have shown him. He is very much an altered man and pledges to show his gratitude for the second chance he has been given by embracing the spirit of Christmas and life itself. He is quite giddy and unsure of how long he has been gone, he calls out to a boy and asks him what day it is. The boy replies that it is Christmas Day. He then instructs the boy to go and buy the biggest turkey in the butcher’s shop – saying he will pay him to do so – so it can be delivered to the Cratchits’ house.

Once he is ready, Scrooge goes out into the street and wishes everybody he sees a Merry Christmas. He comes across one of the gentleman who had called at his office the day before campaigning on behalf of the poor and needy. He apologises for his actions and promises to donate many large sums of money to the charity to make up for his past discrepancies. He passes through the streets, as joyful as it is possible for any person to be. He arrives at Fred’s house, where he is welcomed with open arms to dinner and the family’s Christmas party.

The next morning Scrooge arrives early at his office purposely to catch Bob Cratchit coming in late. Scrooge adopts his old demeanour as a disguise and chastises a flustered Bob for his lateness, before saying he will raise his salary – something that Bob initially does not believe. The two men drink to Christmas and from that day Scrooge becomes a close friend to the entire Cratchit family – especially to Tiny Tim, who prospers. Scrooge truly is a changed man and continues to keep Christmas as well as any man can.

Last week was a rather sombre affair as we encountered the ultra mysterious Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a spectre of death. Though it didn’t have an awful lot to say, thankfully the Evening Readers did. We were rather impressed at Scrooge’s brave decision to put the prospect of personal improvement and redemption before fear and had to feel great empathy at his very surreal ordeal; as one reader pointed out it was “like seeing your own obituary published in a paper then watching your grave being robbed” – very unsettling indeed. Also hardly anyone could fail to be moved by Bob Cratchit’s sorrow – a completely different aspect of death but another nobody should ever have to bear witness to. In the end, we concluded that Dickens may have well introduced the concept of ‘tough love’ through Scrooge’s emotional journey and it was not just Scrooge that was left humbled as we took away the fact that “we enter the world with nothing and leave with nothing”.

Hopefully, tomorrow’s concluding part will be a much cheerier affair, in keeping with the increasingly Christmassy mood that is descending all around. Join us at 9pm on the dot for the last time with the first Evening Read-In (keep your eyes peeled in the New Year for announcement of the next Read-In…) and don’t be shy – it’s the final opportunity to air your thoughts on the story by tweeting along with the accompanying hashtag #eveningreadin .

The first selection is thoroughly and unashamedly all about Christmas itself, with plenty of treats to choose from. Enjoy.

Christmas Fancies – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A lovely poem that signals how the joy of Christmas can overpower the grey gloom of winter and other everyday troubles – is there any happier sound than the Christmas bells ‘pelting the air with silver chimes?’

Ceremonies For Christmas – Robert Herrick

We all have a number of ‘ceremonies’ to perform at this time of year, many of them involving food in abundance. And this poem contains meat, mince pies, plums and beer…(it’ll either make your mouth water or serve as a shopping list)

Voices In The Mist – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Something of an eerie scenario is set in the still, silent and misty night before Christmas – but happily, Christmas spirit is not absent.

A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior – Ben Jonson

No Christmas would be complete without a Nativity scene and this is a particularly eloquent portrayal. “Can Man forget this story?” Jonson asks. We can’t possibly argue.

The Burning Babe – Robert Southwell

Another vision of the Nativity; from an onlooker in the cold who is warmed by the bright glow and love emanating from the infant Christ.

Minstrels – William Wordsworth

Christmas is also a time for music – carolling or otherwise. Here, the air is filled with an enchanting Christmas tune played by a group of minstrels and heard by people far and wide.

The Mahogany Tree – William Makepeace Thackeray

Towering or tiny, authentic or artificial – Christmas trees are one of the most cheering sights of the season; and here, the ideal gathering point for many a Christmas get-together.

This Section Is A Christmas Tree – Vachel Lindsay

Another ode to the Christmas tree – this one loaded with lots of lovely delights and pretty toys…

Christmas In India – Rudyard Kipling

One for globetrotters or perhaps those who fancy escaping the fierce winter chill – a celebration of Christmas in a far hotter clime…

Love Came Down At Christmas – Christina Rossetti

Many different emotions can come to characterise Christmas (not all of them good…), but Christina Rossetti reminds of the one that overrides them all – love.

Get involved in our live listening, social and shared reading experience - tweet your thoughts by using the #eveningreadin hashtag and join our Tweet Party (Party Hashtag: #eveningreadin; Party Host: @thereaderorg)

Click to listen to A Christmas Carol – Part 4 audio

Read along with the story here

Part 4 Synopsis:  

The phantom appears before Scrooge; a disconsolate and rather disturbing presence. This Spirit is shadowy in both appearance and nature; it does not speak when Scrooge asks it if it is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Though terrified of the Spirit, Scrooge is keen to accompany it, knowing whatever it has to reveal will ultimately lead him to become a better man.

Scrooge and the Spirit arrive in the heart of the city, where groups of businessmen are feverishly discussing the death of a man. However none of them are mourning his passing. They then travel to a crime-ridden corner of the town where a group of vagabonds gather around some personal effects of not much value which appear to have been taken from the man who has died. The group barter and laugh at the objects and Scrooge is horrified by their actions. He takes the case of this unfortunate man to foreshadow his own eventual fate; that is, if he does not change his ways. The scene once again changes; in a bare and dark room and lying alone, Scrooge is confronted with the body of the man – though he does not see who it is. They move on to the house of a young couple and their children. They are careworn with worry, but their fretting is relieved when the young man announces the death of the man everyone has been talking about and to whom they owed a debt.

Scrooge asks the Spirit to show him a death that does not evoke emotions of pleasure or relief, but love and tenderness. The Spirit brings them to a familiar dwelling – Bob Cratchit’s house. It is overwhelmed by a solemn atmosphere. The family are all there – except for Bob. When he arrives home he is welcomed by his wife and children and tries hard to be cheerful for their sake, but breaks down at the thought of Tiny Tim, who has died. When recovered, Bob informs the family that he met Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, who though he did not know the child expressed sorrow at his death and Bob marvels at his kindness. All of the family announce that Tiny Tim’s spirit will live with them always.

Knowing that the Spirit will soon depart, Scrooge beseeches it to let him know the identity of the dead man. The Spirit still does not reply and heads straight on, past Scrooge’s workplace and his house, to a graveyard where it points to one grave – which bears a very familiar name. Scrooge asks the Spirit whether this horrifying vision is what will be, or what may be and therefore can be changed. He pleads that he is not the man he once was and promises to honour the spirit of Christmas not just at the time itself but all the year through so that this nightmare may not come true. As his promises are repeated, the Spirit’s robe alters and changes into a bedpost and Scrooge finds himself back in his bedroom.

The Ghost of Christmas Present from the Muppets Christmas Carol - he likes a Christmas dinner

Lee: “You ready to do the shopping list now?”

Katie: “Yep, okay, so, let’s work it out per person….”

Katie: “Not everyone likes sprouts do they so….let’s get 135 sprouts”

Lee:  “So 80 parsnips and 160 carrots (but that might vary according to size)”

Katie: “ We need chestnut puree and dried apricots too”

 Zoe: “Let’s put this on the blog”

This is a very scientific approach to making Christmas lunch.

And on it went….very amusing, and mmmm my mouth is watering already. 

After overhearing this conversation I replied “Don’t be scientific about the lunch, Scrooge was scientific about these things too and look how that turned out” 

SCROOGE: Well, what else can I be when I live in such a world of fools? What’s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money? Merry Christmas! A time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer. If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips’d be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!

Moral of the story: Don’t be so scientific about a Christmas dinner, the leftovers can be eaten at a later date.

Instead of searching through shelves at the DVD rental shop and clear out the entire stock of popcorn supplies in the supermarket, why not listen in to our audio of the original and surely the best version – straight from the pen of Dickens himself. Countless actors have put their own spin on Scrooge but as the Evening Readers have been discovering over the past 3 weeks it’s much more fun to form your own impression of Ebenezer (with a little help from Charles, of course).

Part 4 of the classic Christmas tale will be here tomorrow at 9pm – if you’re late to the Christmas reading party, you can catch up with Parts 1 2 and 3 (perfect to get you into the festive feeling). And because the Evening Read-In is all about interaction, you can chat about Part 4 as it happens on Twitter with the hashtag #eveningreadin .

We want you to get involved in sharing the story over the next hour - tweet your thoughts by using the #eveningreadin hashtag and join our Tweet Party (Party Hashtag: #eveningreadin; Party Host: @thereaderorg)

Click to listen to A Christmas Carol – Part 3 audio

Read along with the story here

Part 3 Synopsis:

In order to be completely prepared and ready for the arrival of the next Spirit, Scrooge awakes instinctively at one. Despite his resolution not to be surprised he finds that when the clock strikes the hour, it is nowhere to be seen. Scrooge follows a beam of light from the adjoining room and finds the Spirit there, sitting amongst an overwhelming feast and swathed in festive decoration. It was the Ghost of Christmas Present – majestic looking and incredibly jolly in demeanour. Having learnt much from the first Spirit, Scrooge is more forthcoming in wanting to profit from what the second Spirit has to teach him. By touching the Spirit’s robe, they begin their journey into the city streets on Christmas morning. Despite the gloominess of the climate, there is incredible cheer in the air; shops teem with delights and people embrace the merry mood, wishing each other goodwill.

Having been absorbed in the atmosphere, they move on to the house of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s clerk. Bob’s arrival is eagerly awaited by his family who are gathered inside; he enters in threadbare clothing with his sickly son, Tiny Tim, perched on his shoulder. All together and content, the family go on preparing and enjoying their scant Christmas dinner and despite Mrs Cratchit’s protesting, Bob raises a toast in Scrooge’s name. The family have a very happy time, even as Tiny Tim continues to ail. Looking at the boy, Scrooge feels a wave of concern for his welfare, which is emphasised when the Spirit discloses a bleak vision of the family’s future.

Having visited other Christmas gatherings – including a group of miners and men at sea who by all means should be having a miserable time but instead are sharing in the universal happiness – they arrive at a house vibrant with the sound of laughter. It belongs to Fred, Scrooge’s nephew. Everyone is having a wonderful celebration, complete with music and many games. Offering a contrast, Fred mentions Scrooge’s attitude to Christmas. Fred’s wife says she has no patience for Scrooge but Fred says he cannot help but feel pity, as Scrooge misses out on so many pleasant moments. Despite them being very disparaging, Fred and his friends drink a toast to Scrooge. Though he cannot be seen, Scrooge plays along with all of the games and festivities, quite taken with a joyful mood as before unseen.

The Spirit grows perceptibly older, and informs Scrooge that there is not long of his life left – indeed, it ends at midnight and it is a quarter to. Before the Spirit disappears, Scrooge notices something strange protruding from the Spirit’s robe. Two children – a boy and a girl – emerge. The Spirit informs Scrooge that they represent two of humanity’s worst traits – Ignorance and Want. Scrooge is reminded of his dismissal of society’s most poor and needy, and the Spirit warns him that Doom will await if Scrooge does not take heed of the two children. Almost as soon as the Spirit fades away, Scrooge eyes a hooded phantom coming towards him like mist on the ground…

However, if for whatever reason you find that you’re lacking in the spirit then we have just the antidote for you – The Evening Read-In. The story of A Christmas Carol so far has plenty of spirit in every sense of the word – that special seasonal feeling in the air (which has not quite reached Scrooge just yet), the copious amounts of drink flowing at Fezziwig’s party and, of course, in the not-quite-physical but certainly very real form of Scrooge’s spectres – yes, proceedings are spooky enough that you’d be forgiven for thinking time had been turned back and it was Hallowe’en rather than Christmas.

Last week we met the Ghost of Christmas Past, complete with wonderful contradictions – all at once shadowy and light, serene and strong – and an appearance it was suggested was reminiscent of  the Green Man (which, rather appropriately, is “a symbol of rebirth or renaissance” – you could never accuse Dickens of not thinking these things through). Like Scrooge we learnt a few things along the way – including finding out exactly what a “Welsh cap” as worn by the very dapper Mr Fezziwig is (it’s ‘a woollen or worsted cap, originally made in Montgomery, Wales’) and coming across what surely is the perfect excuse for being late for any appointment in these wild and wintry conditions: just say that your clock stopped because “an icicle must have got into the works” (just tell any doubters that it’s Charles Dickens-approved). Deeper issues were also pondered, such as whether aspirations can always be kept ‘noble’ and if it’s the case that one can only ever ‘profit’ in either business or love (I’m sure we can all guess where Scrooge’s riches lie…) – and just how do you throw a Christmas party to rival the Fezziwigs’ bonanza? That may be one question that will go forever unanswered…

Tomorrow it’ll be the turn of another spirit to pay Scrooge a visit – and we’ll be getting into the spirit by reading and listening in. Why not join us? There’s no time like the Present (might have given away the story a little there…). Be here at 9pm sharpish and get on Twitter too (#eveningreadin) for Part 3 of the Dickensian classic.

Getting children and young people into reading is a top priority amongst us at The Reader Organisation; we want everyone to discover the joys of books, but it is especially important that children experience the incredible imaginative power of reading in their formative years. We are constantly coming up with new ideas to engage children with literature – this year alone we have given away 50,000 free copies of the exclusive-for-TRO book The Unforgotten Coat written by award-winning children’s author Frank Cottrell Boyce as part of the biggest Our Read ever, as well as running a range of events and workshops alongside to support the shared reading adventure, and on Sunday we held the second Ha’penny Readings – an event full of fun, laughter and wacky entertainment with lots of reading thrown in, designed especially for kids.

But while the statistics do clearly point to a problem, it’s not just to do with the matter of owning books - but instead whether children are motivated to read them once they have them in their hands. There’s certainly no shortage of books available to buy for reasonable prices and many children across the country are in possession of items that cost much more. The real problem that is to be tackled is a lack of reading aspiration.

The various shared reading projects we run with children - the latest currently being developed in schools in Glasgow –  introduce them to the sheer pleasure of books, encouraging their individual passion and enthusiasm for reading to grow and leading them to read more and more often (and perhaps buy a book with their pocket money). Often, it only takes one story being read to a child or one book given as a gift to spark off excitement and a desire for reading that will last a lifetime.